Cooking - Homemade Soft Pretzels

I have had a snack of

homemade soft pretzels 

on my to do list for months!!

I (we) finally got around to making them

this week.

We have taken two weeks off from school

to get organized and for a visit from grammy.

I didn't decide this til Monday morning as we

were gathering around the kitchen table

getting ready to start school.

When I told the kids,

you would have thought it was 

Christmas or I told them we were 

going to Disney World (if they knew what that was)
or something...

There were hugs and hollering 

and Thank You's galore!

Mercy!!
(weren't they the ones bugging me
to start their new books just 1 month ago??)

I told them we would do some arts 

and crafts (none of which have occurred yet).

But it also gave us the opportunity to 

make these pretzels!

When it comes to recipes,

to me they are typically just guidelines

or suggestions.

I usually tweak a little to make them

my own.

 I googled soft pretzel recipe

and came upon one called

Almost-Famous Soft Pretzels

With a name like that - we had to try it!

I followed the recipe almost exactly,

I tweaked the flour a little

and did a combo of 

white and wheat flour.

We also didn't go the salt covered route,
we covered them with cinnamon sugar.

Ok - so I didn't follow it "exactly"
just mostly.

I did follow the cooking directions,

but I think they were a little overdone,

so next time I won't cook them quite as long.

But I didn't hear ANY complaints 

as all 6 were being scarfed down!!
(yours truly included!)


A pictorial review

I waited until after the littles had gone down for
naps before the big boys and I started the dough.


We marked the bowl to approximate where the
top of the dough was to see how much it rose.



Then we examined the results after the dough rose.



Then Ms. Priss got to punch it down!



Then I portioned out the dough into
6 pieces and everyone got to work
rolling out and shaping their dough!

Four were the traditional pretzel shape,

then I let the big boys make something of their own.

The results!!!

 

We will definitely be making these again.

I am not sure I will allow all the "help" 

on the front end.

But they enjoyed it.